Review on District Cooling and Its Application in Energy Systems

This chapter investigates the implementation of district cooling systems by exploring several research studies reported in the literature. The topics addressed include typologies and design parameters, benefits and limitations, applications of the system, and the technology readiness level. District cooling systems are generally regarded as cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions. One might think that district cooling is only a solution for areas with a very warm climate. However, based on the reported results of the surveyed studies, the number of operating district cooling systems has increased over the years, with the Scandinavian countries taking the lead in this market within European countries. Implementation of these systems concluded reduction in primary energy and electricity use, they also proved to be an environmentally efficient way

Resilient cooling strategies – A critical review and qualitative assessment

The global effects of climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heatwaves and power outages, which have consequences for buildings and their cooling systems. Buildings and their cooling systems should be designed and operated to be resilient under such events to protect occupants from potentially dangerous indoor thermal conditions. This study performed a critical review on the state-of-the-art of cooling strategies, with special attention to their performance under heatwaves and power outages. We proposed a definition of resilient cooling and described four criteria for resilience—absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, restorative capacity, and recovery speed —and used them to qualitatively evaluate the resilience of each strategy. The literature review and qualitative analyses show that to attain resilient cooling, the four resilience criteria should be considered in the design phase of a building or during the planning of retrofits. The building and relevant cooling system characteristics should be considered simultaneously to withstand extreme events. A combination of strategies with different resilience capacities, such as a passive envelope strategy coupled with a low-energy space-cooling solution, may be needed to obtain resilient cooling. Finally, a further direction for a quantitative assessment approach has been pointed out

Global investments in pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: development assistance and domestic spending on health between 1990 and 2026

Background The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted gaps in health surveillance systems, disease prevention, and treatment globally. Among the many factors that might have led to these gaps is the issue of the financing of national health systems, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as a robust global system for pandemic preparedness. We aimed to provide a comparative assessment of global health spending at the onset of the pandemic; characterise the amount of development assistance for pandemic preparedness and response disbursed in the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic; and examine expectations for future health spending and put into context the expected need for investment in pandemic preparedness. Methods In this analysis of global health spending between 1990 and 2021, and prediction from 2021 to 2026, we estimated four sources of health spending: development assistance for health (DAH), government spending, out-of-pocket spending, and prepaid private spending across 204 countries and territories. We used the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Creditor Reporting System (CRS) and the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database (GHED) to estimate spending. We estimated development assistance for general health, COVID-19 response, and pandemic preparedness and response using a keyword search. Health spending estimates were combined with estimates of resources needed for pandemic prevention and preparedness to analyse future health spending patterns, relative to need. Findings In 2019, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, US$9·2 trillion (95$7·3 trillion (95% UI 7·2–7·4) in 2019; 293·7 times the $24·8 billion (95$43·1 billion in development assistance was provided to maintain or improve health. The pandemic led to an unprecedented increase in development assistance targeted towards health; in 2020 and 2021, $1·8 billion in DAH contributions was provided towards pandemic preparedness in LMICs, and$37·8 billion was provided for the health-related COVID-19 response. Although the support for pandemic preparedness is 12·2% of the recommended target by the High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP), the support provided for the health-related COVID-19 response is 252·2% of the recommended target. Additionally, projected spending estimates suggest that between 2022 and 2026, governments in 17 (95% UI 11–21) of the 137 LMICs will observe an increase in national government health spending equivalent to an addition of 1% of GDP, as recommended by the HLIP. Interpretation There was an unprecedented scale-up in DAH in 2020 and 2021. We have a unique opportunity at this time to sustain funding for crucial global health functions, including pandemic preparedness. However, historical patterns of underfunding of pandemic preparedness suggest that deliberate effort must be made to ensure funding is maintained

Optimization of window-to-wall ratio for buildings located in different climates: an IDA-Indoor Climate and Energy simulation study

This study investigates different cases to obtain optimal Window-to-Wall ratio (WWR) in seven different climate conditions based on the Köppen–Geiger climate classification. The optimal WWR was decided based on the minimum amount of total energy use (total of cooling, heating, and lighting energy use) of a building model during a complete year. The impact of overhang and automatic blinds were assessed on the optimization of WWR for a building with integrated automatic lighting control. Moreover, three different windows with different U-values and features were employed in order to analyze their effect on the energy use and WWR of the building. IDA-Indoor Climate and Energy (IDA-ICE) was used to carry out the simulations. The software has been validated based on ASHRAE Standard 140. Based on each climate condition, orientation, employed window type, and comfort conditions, an optimal range with a specific combination of window with blind, overhang, or neither was found

Analyzing the climate-driven energy demand and carbon emission for a prototype residential nZEB in central Sweden

The changes in climate and the expected extreme climate conditions in the future, given the long life span of the buildings have pushed the design limits. In this study, the changes in primary energy use (PEPET), total energy use and CO2 emission were investigated for a prototype residential building. The building fulfils nearly zero energy building (NZEB) characteristics, imposed by the Swedish building regulations. Different cooling technologies and various typical meteorological year (TMY) climate files assembled for different periods, as well as automatic shading were investigated. The assembled TMY files advocated for the present (2001-2020) and mid-future (2041-2060) period using the CORDEX data. Different cooling methods and set-points (24-28°C) were defined to evaluate the cooling energy requirement changes. It was discovered that the freely available typical climate file fails to cover the induced changes in climate and its extreme implications on the building. The required cooling energy use increased from 1.7-5.8 times the freely available climate file, when using the projected TMY and the extreme climate files. Addition of automatic shading system reduced cooling energy up to 75% within the studied cooling methods and set-points. Moreover PEPET and CO2 emission also decreased for the studied cooling methods, climate and weather files

Comparison of Space Cooling Systems from Energy and Economic Perspectives for a Future City District in Sweden

In this study, the performance of different cooling technologies from energy and economic perspectives were evaluated for six different prototype residential Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) within a planned future city district in central Sweden. This was carried out by assessing the primary energy number and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) for each building model and cooling technology. Projected future climate file representing the 2050s (mid-term future) was employed. Three cooling technologies (district cooling, compression chillers coupled/uncoupled with photovoltaic (PV) systems, and absorption chillers) were evaluated. Based on the results obtained from primary energy number and LCCA, compression chillers with PV systems appeared to be favorable as this technology depicted the least value for primary energy use and LCCA. Compared to compression chillers alone, the primary energy number and the life cycle cost were reduced by 13%, on average. Moreover, the district cooling system was found to be an agreeable choice for buildings with large floor areas from an economic perspective. Apart from these, absorption chillers, utilizing environmentally sustainable district heating, displayed the highest primary energy use and life cycle cost which made them the least favorable choice. However, the reoccurring operational cost from the LCCA was about 60 and 50% of the total life cycle cost for district cooling and absorption chillers, respectively, while this value corresponds to 80% for the compression chillers, showing the high net present value for this technology but sensitive to future electricity prices

Microplastics in surface waters of the Gulf of Gabes, southern Mediterranean Sea: Distribution, composition and influence of hydrodynamics

International audienc

International Energy Agency EBC Annex 80 - Resilient Cooling of Buildings - State of the Art Review

The world is facing a rapid increase of air conditioning of buildings. This is driven by multiple factors, such as urbanization and densification, climate change and elevated comfort expectations together with economic growth in hot and densely populated regions of the world. The trend towards cooling seems inexorable therefore it is mandatory to guide this development towards sustainable solutions. Against this background, it is the motivation of Annex 80 to develop, assess and communicate solutions of resilient cooling and overheating protection. Resilient Cooling is used to denote low energy and low carbon cooling solutions that strengthen the ability of individuals and our community as a whole to withstand, and also prevent, thermal and other impacts of changes in global and local climates. It encompasses the assessment and Research &amp; Development of both active and passive cooling technologies of the following four groups: - Reduce heat loads to people and indoor environments. - Remove sensible heat from indoor environments. - Enhance personal comfort apart from space cooling. - Remove latent heat from indoor environments. The Annex 80’s main objective is to support a rapid transition to an environment where resilient low energy and low carbon cooling systems are the mainstream and preferred solutions for cooling and overheating issues in buildings.<br/